


Godlessness

by SaxSpieler



Series: Verǫld Vǫrðr [9]
Category: Runescape
Genre: Gen, One Shot, Panic Attacks, lots of bad blood between these two
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-23
Updated: 2016-06-23
Packaged: 2018-07-16 20:22:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,201
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7283350
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SaxSpieler/pseuds/SaxSpieler
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kara-Meir confronts the World Guardian after Tuska's defeat. It doesn't end well.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Godlessness

**Author's Note:**

> Finley was initially recruited to the Godless following the death of Guthix. However, after the defeat of Tuska, she begins to question her allegiance as her friction with Kara-Meir escalates to the point of violence. Follows the events of Heart of Stone and immediately precedes the events of Hero’s Welcome.
> 
> Also, Finley has a bit of a panic attack.

Finley stepped back through the world window and stood for a moment, eyes closed, taking in the scent of slowly decaying flesh mixing with salt water. She listened to the crows, smiling grimly to herself.

They would feast for years.

It was over.

After a long two nights of grateful unconsciousness, she had received word that, apart from a few stray asteroids landing here and there, there had been minimal damage. No one had died. No cities had been destroyed. The world was safe.

For now, at least.

Maybe that was enough.

“Right,” she mumbled, her nose starting to wrinkle from the smell. Throwing the bits of toughened Airut hide that she planned to fashion into a new set of gauntlets and boots into her pack, she turned, heading back towards the makeshift camp set up to the north; despite the now relative safety of the world, there were still some wounds to be tended to.

Pushing through the entrance of the infirmary shack, she nodded to the nurse before plucking a first aid kit off the nearby table and edging her way over to the patient on the far wall.

She couldn’t remember which god he had pledged his loyalty to, but that didn’t matter now. The unconscious, pallid-faced knight, along with several others, had helped to down the giant pig goddess on which they now stood. That was all Finley cared about at the moment.

“How’re the patients today?” she asked, unwinding a bandage on his upper arm.

“A bit better. We’re getting low on supplies, though,” the nurse answered from across the room. Finley sighed, looking over the still raw-looking wound on the man’s arm. At least it had stopped bleeding.

“I’ll see what I can scrounge up back on the mainland for you,” she said as she began to redress the wound.

“Thank you, World Guardi-”

“Finley,” she said quickly. “It’s just Finley.”

“Sorry…”

Finishing up, she placed a hand to the knight’s forehead. Satisfied that his fever had gone down slightly, she stood, moving to the next bed.

Suddenly, the background noise of cawing crows was pierced with arguing voices from outside the infirmary.

“Excuse me,” she mumbled to the nurse, placing the first aid kit back on the table and edging her way back into the sunlight.

What, or who, she saw arguing there made her wish that she had stayed inside.

It wasn’t the Icyene, Garlandia, that almost made her backpedal into the infirmary. It was the younger human adventurer Kara-Meir, that did.

Unfortunately, before Finley _could_ backpedal, she was noticed by them both.

“World Guardian,” Kara called, eyes narrowing. Garlandia said nothing, stepping away slightly.

“Aye, Kara. How are you?”

“Better, now that _this_ is dead,” she grumbled, stamping her foot on Tuska’s dead hide. Finley nodded, edging forward slightly. She and Kara seemed to be on the same page at the moment – a good sign, if anything.

“You missed yourself – We could’ve used your help taking this down.”

“A matter required my urgent attention.” Kara glanced sideways, a slight grimace working its way across her face momentarily. “I would have been here otherwise.”

“Right.” Finely shifted in place. “If you don’t need me for anything, I should get back to the patients.”

“Actually, I wanted to speak with you. Privately.” At this, Kara shot a particularly dagger-like glance towards Garlandia, who edged further away, obviously perturbed. Kara motioned to a spot over by one of Tuska’s vertebrae, and, after a moment, Finley complied. Once they stood far enough away from the makeshift camp, Kara began to speak, her voice low. “I won’t skirt the issue with you, World Guardi-”

“Finley.”

“Fine. Finley Bannbreker.”

“Thank you.”

“ I won’t skirt the issue with you, Bannbreker. I need to know all that you know about the Stone of Jas and how we might obtain it.”

Finley reeled, feeling as if she had been flung through space by Wizard Chambers all over again.

“W-wha? You’re serious?”

“I am. We’ve lived too long in fear of these gods. We – the Godless – have made our show of force here, with the World Eater, and now we need to act.”

“Aye, but it wasn’t just the Godless – we had help from all over, you know?”

“Regardless. We can finally stand as a credible force against the other gods, and we should take advantage of that.”

Finley ran a hand through her hair, turning away from Kara to stare over the open ocean to the north, trying in vain to process the situation.

She had only recently recovered from her latest Stone-related escapade and the events that followed – a thought she involuntarily shivered at - and she wasn’t quite keen on beginning another one, let alone one headed by another vengeful, power-hungry individual.

“Bannbreker.” Kara’s interruption brought Finley back around. “I’ve heard of your brief allegiance with Zamorak. You got close to the Stone, and to the one who was holding it. As far as mortals go, you’re our resident expert on both.”

Finley chuckled darkly, despite herself. “Kara, I can’t tell you much about Sliske that you don’t already know.” That was a lie.

“This isn’t funny, Bannbreker,” Kara growled.

“Aye, but I’m not going to talk about that bit of keech, if that’s what you’re after,” Finley replied, letting her own voice harshen in kind.

“Then let’s move on.”

“Right.”

“The Stone. Where is it? How do we get it?”

Finley sighed, not wanting to bring anything to blows. Growled voices were enough among allies.

“I don’t know where it is. Sliske probably stashed it somewhere new after we payed him a visit.”

“So, to get it, we’d have to win it.”

Finley pinched the bridge of her nose, hissing out a few choice swears. She had been wondering how long it would’ve taken for Kara to bring Sliske’s god-killing contest into the conversation.

“Bannbreker, listen to me,” Kara began. “We’ve already killed one god. All we’d need to do would be to kill another. And, with you leading the charge, we’d be sure to at least have a fighting chance of doing so.”

“Kara.”

“What?”

“Clam up and listen to _me,”_ Finley said, finally looking up from her nose bridge pinching. “The Stone’s not something to be won or lost. It’s not something to be used at all.”

“Funny, I seem to recall hearing of you using it more that once, World Guardi-”

 _“FINLEY!”_ she snapped, forcing Kara back a few steps. “And, in case yer after the reasons why I touched that cursed egg, I’ll tell ye! The first time, I was a bit of a dobber and didn’t know what I was doing at the moment. The second time, I was up to my eyeballs in demons and several angry Mahjarrat all trying to kill each other. And the third time, I needed to jog it out of the Shadow Realm. Now, why don’t ye have a go at jogging something the size of a Daggermouth King back into existence and get back to me about how hard that is without touching it! With yer arse, or yer hand. Doesn’t matter!”

Kara didn’t respond. Her expression remained stone-like. Finley shook her head, hissing out a few more swears for good measure.

It was a good minute before either of them spoke.

“Bannbreker,” Kara began.

“Hm?”

“You and I have both witnessed many god-related tragedies. The least we can do for this world is ensure that more of those tragedies don’t happen – ensure that no one else falls victim to them. Isn’t that what being World Guardian entails?”

“Aye.” Finley’s mind flashed to the events of nearly a year and a half prior. She lay in the snow, out of breath. Blood dotted her armor, most of it her own. Idria’s ashes were scattered nearby. Adrius was skewered to the ground, lifeless. Lucien’s staff-speared corpse lay strewn ten feet away, the three dragonkin who had done him in mantling the body like overgrown hawks to a dead rabbit. “But that Stone’s more trouble than it’s worth. You use it, and the world might be safe today, aye. But tomorrow, it could come crashing down harder than before.”

“Perhaps it’s worth the risk,” Kara said. “With the power of the Stone, I could…”

 _“You_ could what?”

“I could destroy the gods. Free all mortal life from their tyranny.”

Brow furrowing, Finley looked hard at Kara. Perhaps, if she looked hard enough, she would be somehow able to visually make out how far Kara’s mind had removed itself from reality.

“Yer havering…” she mumbled, shaking her head.

“I’m…what?”

“Yer talking keech. Out of yer mind, that’s what ye are!”

“I am not! If I get my hands on the Stone, I’ll destroy the gods!”

“And then what? Ye mess about with that kind of power, and the next minute, yer addicted. Ye’ll be calling for people to kneel at yer feet, just like the gods ye say ye hate!”

“Oh, and you know this for sure?”

“Aye, that I do!”

Suddenly, there was steel at Finley’s throat. She jumped backwards slightly, enough for Kara’s drawn dagger to leave the skin of her neck. A slight stinging told her that it had indeed drawn blood.

“Disrespect me again, and I won’t hesitate to gut you,” she growled, still pointing the dagger in Finley’s direction. Finley held up her hands in response, mentally gauging how quickly she could swing her halberd off her back.

“Jog on, Kara. I’m not about to fight you over this.”

Kara’s eyes narrowed as she raised the dagger, but she made no move to lunge forward.

“Fine then,” Finley sighed after a moment, backing up and turning to leave.

_“Coward.”_

Kara’s hiss was a hand of ice closing tightly around her lungs.

Suddenly, her halberd was swinging through the air, its flight accompanied by the cry of a cornered animal poked and prodded one too many times with an electrified stick. With a sickening crack, the flat of the halberd’s blade crashed down onto Kara’s dagger-wielding hand.

Finley dropped to her knees, the halberd clattering to Tuska’s hide beside her, struggling for air.

Her eyes barely registered Kara cradling her now broken hand, face twisted in pain. All she saw was the world breaking apart around her, the melting and cracking reality stained with flecks of her own blood.

_Gods, it was everywhere._

Her hands found her ears, tearing at them, desperate to shut out _that_ voice from her mind.

_Coward._

“Kara!”

_Face me!_

“Gah! No – stay back!”

_COWARD!_

“What happened?”

_Pathetic!_

“That _thing_ just attacked me out of nowhere!”

_Time to die._

“What!?!”

_Too late._

_Too late._

_TOO LATE._

A scream tore at her throat, but only a faint, sputtering whimper made it out.

Hands – not her own – pulled her upright. Steadied her. Large, stony hands. Rocky outcroppings. Like the coastline of Rellekka.

Home. Think of home.

She did.

She clung to the rocks, steadying her breath bit by bit.

_Ma’s garden._

_Pa’s laugh._

_Geilir’s stories._

_The smell of the trees._

_Crashing waves._

_Home._

She forced her eyes to focus and released her white-knuckled hold on Scopulus’ arm to see that Garlandia had helped Kara to her feet. Both of them stared at Finley: the former with disbelief, the latter with contempt.

_What have you done now you jumpy bastard? You just attacked an ally._

Swallowing hard, Finley attempted to speak.

“K…Kara. I-”

“GO!” Kara spat, wincing violently. “Get out of here!”

_Ally?_

“Kara, I’m-” Finley sputtered, her stomach reeling. “I’m sor-”

“GO!”

_Former ally?_

“Right. Right…” she sighed, shaking as she reached down to pick up her halberd. “I’ll…I’ll go.”

“Good riddance, you useless _traitor.”_

_Aye. Former ally._

Finley’s shakiness waned as she strode forward, brandishing her halberd’s blade threateningly in Kara’s direction.

“We are beyond such savagery, here.” Garlandia said firmly as she stepped between the two, warding Finley off with an outstretched hand.

“Are ye?” Finley barked, her voice cracking. “Are ye really? Yer leader here’s about to go on a god-killing crusade to try and win the Stone of Jas so she can go on an even bigger god-killing crusade, which may kill thousands of people in the process, and ye claim to be beyond savagery?!?”

Garlandia said nothing, pointedly avoiding Finley’s eyes.

“Ye listen to me, Kara,” Finley continued, jabbing her halberd in the younger adventurer’s direction. “Ye can threaten me all ye want. I don’t give a damn. But, if ye go and threaten the world I’ve sworn to protect – if ye so much as touch the Stone of Jas with intent to murder – I _will_ end ye.”

With that, Finley whirled around, eyes stinging, and strode away, readying a teleport.

The destination didn’t matter – anywhere was better than Tuska’s corpse.

“I swear, Bannbreker. If I ever see you again, I’ll kill you! Do you hear me, Bannbreker?!?”

Finley froze and turned to face Kara again.

“It’s _World Guardian.”_

With that, she teleported, leaving Tuska, and the Godless, behind.

***

A week later, a large box was delivered via the Bedabin Camp to the makeshift infirmary on Tuska’s corpse. It was filled with bandages, healing potions, and a fair amount of food.

There was no return address.


End file.
